Greater North Sea

DRAFT

Information on the distribution, intensity, impact and economic value of mobile bottom contacting gear (MBCG) fisheries within the Greater North Sea area and associated subdivisions, and estimated consequences and costs (landings weight, landings value) of reducing their relative extent.

Greater North Sea

Summary

text summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Greater North Sea area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	2.65	7.98	1.05
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	0.95	1.00	0.68
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.72	0.97	0.40
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.46	0.73	0.30
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.05	0.00	0.32
Average PD impact (I-6a)	0.19	0.00	0.00
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	0.28	0.00	0.00
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	0.68	1.00	1.00
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	0.56	1.00	1.00

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Greater North Sea area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Greater North Sea area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.3.a.20	Skagerrak	8589114	8.17	[6 - 11]
27.3.a.21	Kattegat	2933089	12.33	[11 - 13]
27.3.b.23	The Sound	11237	41.83	[7 - 75]
27.4.a	Northern North Sea	6518051	0.00	[0 - 0]
27.4.b	Central North Sea	24194203	1.00	[1 - 1]
27.4.c	Southern North Sea	19239402	0.00	[0 - 0]
27.7.d	Western English Channel	12365350	17.33	[16 - 18]
27.7.e	Eastern English Channel	8267271	32.83	[31 - 35]

Fishing intensity

text pressure

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Greater North Sea area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity (I-1)	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Circalittoral sand	58.13	27.2	82.75	135.58	112.62	1.94	69	53.7	3.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	50.93	23.8	56.24	101.20	118.31	2.32	79	61.4	0.2
Offshore circalittoral mud	42.52	19.9	36.13	92.57	151.06	3.55	89	58.8	0.2
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	19.70	9.2	38.13	99.57	104.73	5.32	79	51.3	0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	11.56	5.4	19.63	35.20	40.76	3.53	62	38.5	3.0
Infralittoral sand	8.96	4.2	15.05	29.10	11.90	1.33	37	28.9	42.9
Circalittoral mud	6.41	3.0	11.85	16.39	14.02	2.19	60	48.1	12.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	4.50	2.1	4.14	4.47	4.22	0.94	39	39.8	17.9
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	2.95	1.4	2.05	5.95	7.52	2.54	72	60.9	1.0
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	1.2	2.48	12.60	15.51	6.27	83	62.5	7.9
Infralittoral mud	1.37	0.6	7.60	4.52	0.92	0.67	22	23.9	44.5
Infralittoral coarse sediment	1.23	0.6	3.88	7.71	2.15	1.75	55	50.2	23.9
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.11	0.5	0.65	0.38	0.08	0.07	4	14.9	60.8
Unknown	0.85	0.4	1.45	3.63	3.28	3.84	90	65.8	0.5
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.56	0.3	0.38	1.53	1.32	2.34	52	40.0	4.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.42	0.2	0.18	0.60	0.33	0.79	30	30.3	19.0
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.30	0.1	0.27	0.79	0.32	1.06	32	27.7	17.4
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	4.04	98	NA	0.0

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Greater North Sea area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

text core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Greater North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Greater North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

text fishing by metier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Greater North Sea area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_CRU	TBB_DMF	TBB_MOL
Area swept (1000 km2)	9.67	158.83	138.94	23.20	5.43	58.46	83.85	48.16	67.29	0.03
Landings (1000 tonnes)	62.37	18.20	98.24	9.09	28.58	5.13	6.18	22.26	32.24	0.59
Value (Million euro)	111.67	91.84	68.70	24.72	9.20	13.96	14.52	91.15	125.32	0.74
Landings / Area swept	6.45	0.11	0.71	0.39	5.27	0.09	0.07	0.46	0.48	20.53
Value / Area swept	11.55	0.58	0.49	1.07	1.70	0.24	0.17	1.89	1.86	25.67

Impact

text impact

Figure 5

Figure 5. The spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact in the Greater North Sea area, as assessed with the PD indicator (I-6a) and PD-sens indicator (I-6b), shown as annual means for 2017-2022. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Temporal variation in values of the PD indicator (I-6a), PD-sens indicator (I-6b), proportion of area with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a) and proportion of area with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b), shown for the overall area and for the four most extensive broad habitat types separately in the Greater North Sea area. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Table 5

Table 5. Métier-specific landings weight and value per unit PD or PD-sens impact in the Greater North Sea area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_CRU	TBB_DMF	TBB_MOL
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD impact	0.355	0.015	0.296	0.074	1.405	0.071	0.064	0.107	0.048	0.740
Value (million euro)/PD impact	0.636	0.077	0.203	0.202	0.452	0.194	0.151	0.437	0.185	0.926
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD-sens impact	0.239	0.011	0.186	0.046	1.296	0.045	0.038	0.073	0.030	0.702
Value (million euro)/PD-sens impact	0.428	0.057	0.128	0.126	0.416	0.123	0.089	0.299	0.116	0.878

Figure 7

Figure 7. Métier-related impacts, as measured with the PD indicator (top) and PD-sens indicator (bottom), on the four most extensive broad habitat types in the Greater North Sea area.

Scenarios

Some overall text about the scenarios

Footprint reduction

text footprint reduction scenario

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Greater North Sea area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Circalittoral sand	58.13	112.62	0.1	1.1	3.3	7.0	12.1	18.8	27.5	38.4	56.0
Offshore circalittoral sand	50.93	118.31	1.4	4.1	7.1	10.5	14.8	20.5	27.4	36.2	50.1
Offshore circalittoral mud	42.52	151.06	1.5	3.5	6.1	9.6	14.1	20.6	30.0	44.0	63.5
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	19.7	104.73	0.3	1.0	2.6	5.7	10.8	17.6	26.8	39.8	60.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	11.56	40.76	<0.1	0.5	1.5	3.2	5.6	9.3	14.2	20.8	36.5
Infralittoral sand	8.96	11.9	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	1.6	9.8	28.0	54.8
Circalittoral mud	6.41	14.02	0.0	0.3	2.1	5.7	10.4	17.7	27.3	42.2	63.5
Circalittoral mixed sediment	4.5	4.22	0.0	<0.1	0.4	1.8	5.0	10.2	18.7	27.2	50.3
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	2.95	7.52	0.6	3.1	6.1	10.5	15.8	23.2	31.9	45.3	66.5
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	15.51	6.4	13.7	19.9	27.8	33.8	44.3	52.8	68.9	82.9
Infralittoral mud	1.37	0.92	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	2.5	8.5	19.9	39.5
Infralittoral coarse sediment	1.23	2.15	0.0	0.0	<0.1	1.6	11.5	22.0	30.7	46.3	71.0
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.11	0.08	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.2	5.2	19.5
Unknown	0.85	3.28	2.6	5.2	9.2	12.0	16.7	28.2	44.6	63.8	83.5
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.56	1.32	<0.1	0.5	1.0	2.3	5.2	10.1	16.5	35.3	57.0
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.42	0.33	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.7	2.6	5.4	10.1	22.0	48.9
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.3	0.32	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.3	0.8	2.2	5.3	21.4	40.1
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	0	9.2	29.9	29.9	29.9	29.9	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Greater North Sea area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	213.99	5.8	16.3	31.3	49.9	77.1	113.5	166.2	241.3	342.7
Circalittoral sand	58.13	0.4	2.8	7.2	12.0	18.5	27.0	37.2	51.0	76.3
Offshore circalittoral sand	50.93	2.3	6.0	9.9	13.7	19.0	25.8	35.5	49.2	66.9
Offshore circalittoral mud	42.52	2.4	5.1	8.1	12.1	18.0	25.1	34.5	47.2	64.2
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	19.7	0.4	1.1	2.8	5.7	11.3	18.1	29.1	49.1	66.8
Circalittoral coarse sediment	11.56	<0.1	0.4	1.0	2.3	3.5	5.6	7.7	11.0	19.6
Infralittoral sand	8.96	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	1.4	6.8	11.6	18.1
Circalittoral mud	6.41	0.0	0.1	0.6	1.4	2.4	3.6	5.0	7.3	10.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	4.5	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.5	1.0	1.6	2.6
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	2.95	<0.1	0.2	0.5	0.8	1.4	1.9	2.7	3.6	4.6
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	<0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.8	0.9	1.0
Infralittoral mud	1.37	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.3	0.6	1.0	1.6
Infralittoral coarse sediment	1.23	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.2	1.0	1.6	2.7	4.2	6.2
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.11	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0.85	0.1	0.2	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.7	2.4	2.7	3.3
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.56	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.6	0.9
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.42	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.3	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.3
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Greater North Sea area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	213.99	5.2	12.6	22.1	33.4	48.4	67.1	91.1	122.7	172.8
Circalittoral sand	58.13	0.2	1.6	4.2	6.3	9.3	14.2	19.9	28.6	44.4
Offshore circalittoral sand	50.93	1.9	4.7	7.2	9.6	13.1	17.0	21.1	25.6	37.1
Offshore circalittoral mud	42.52	2.7	5.2	7.5	10.6	14.2	17.5	20.9	24.6	28.8
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	19.7	0.2	0.6	1.3	2.9	5.6	8.6	12.9	20.2	26.5
Circalittoral coarse sediment	11.56	<0.1	0.2	0.6	1.4	2.0	3.3	4.9	7.3	13.8
Infralittoral sand	8.96	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.7	3.6	5.4	7.8
Circalittoral mud	6.41	0.0	<0.1	0.5	1.3	2.1	2.5	3.0	3.9	4.5
Circalittoral mixed sediment	4.5	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.3	0.7	1.0	1.6
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	2.95	<0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.6	0.8	1.1	1.4	1.7
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2
Infralittoral mud	1.37	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.2	0.4	0.7	1.4
Infralittoral coarse sediment	1.23	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.5	0.9	1.5	2.3	3.2
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.11	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0.85	<0.1	0.1	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.9	1.1	1.2	1.3
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.56	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.2
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.42	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.3	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

text gear modification scenario

Figure 8: Habitat 1

Figure 8. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Greater North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 9: Habitat 2

Figure 9. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Greater North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 10: Habitat 3

Figure 10. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Greater North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 11: Habitat 4

Figure 11. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Greater North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Kattegat

Summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Kattegat area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	1.96	NA	NA
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	0.61	NA	NA
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.38	NA	NA
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.27	NA	NA
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.39	NA	NA
Average PD impact (I-6a)	0.26	NA	NA
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	0.33	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	0.66	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	0.63	NA	NA

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Kattegat area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Kattegat area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.3.a.20	Skagerrak	8589114	8.17	[6 - 11]
27.3.a.21	Kattegat	2933089	12.33	[11 - 13]
27.3.b.23	The Sound	11237	41.83	[7 - 75]

Fishing intensity

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Kattegat area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Offshore circalittoral mud	5.33	25.1	2.80	17.40	33.03	6.20	94	75.8	0.7
Infralittoral sand	4.62	21.7	0.36	0.18	0.21	0.04	3	6.2	77.4
Circalittoral mud	3.21	15.1	1.29	4.39	6.67	2.08	55	43.9	18.9
Circalittoral sand	2.94	13.8	0.36	1.00	1.66	0.56	25	24.7	30.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	1.68	7.9	0.08	0.36	0.68	0.41	16	19.5	44.7
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.04	4.9	0.05	0.03	0.04	0.04	3	18.1	63.8
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.61	2.9	0.04	0.15	0.26	0.43	16	19.6	42.3
Infralittoral mud	0.52	2.5	0.94	0.23	0.03	0.06	6	17.3	70.8
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	2.0	0.11	0.73	1.39	3.29	76	67.4	0.7
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.40	1.9	0.01	0.03	0.05	0.13	5	6.9	72.9
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.35	1.7	0.10	0.58	0.97	2.73	69	63.1	1.7
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.06	0.3	0.02	0.14	0.28	4.83	83	66.9	0.0
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.1	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.08	7	28.3	41.0
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.1	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.18	15	27.3	30.9
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.01	0.0	0.00	0.01	0.02	2.56	68	53.4	1.7
Unknown	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.30	11	NA	83.7

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Kattegat area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Kattegat area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Kattegat area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Kattegat area.

	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_SPF
Area swept (1000 km2)	44.89	0.29	0.07
Landings (1000 tonnes)	3.75	0.18	0.44
Value (Million euro)	24.57	0.14	0.11
Landings / Area swept	0.08	0.62	5.98
Value / Area swept	0.55	0.48	1.54

Impact

Figure 5

Figure 5. The spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact in the Kattegat area, as assessed with the PD indicator (I-6a) and PD-sens indicator (I-6b), shown as annual means for 2017-2022. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Temporal variation in values of the PD indicator (I-6a), PD-sens indicator (I-6b), proportion of area with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a) and proportion of area with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b), shown for the overall area and for the four most extensive broad habitat types separately in the Kattegat area. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Table 5

Table 5. Métier-specific landings weight and value per unit PD or PD-sens impact in the Kattegat area.

	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_SPF
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD impact	0.011	0.165	3.550
Value (million euro)/PD impact	0.069	0.128	0.915
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD-sens impact	0.008	0.098	2.437
Value (million euro)/PD-sens impact	0.054	0.076	0.628

Figure 7

Figure 7. Métier-related impacts, as measured with the PD indicator (top) and PD-sens indicator (bottom), on the four most extensive broad habitat types in the Kattegat area.

Scenarios

Footprint reduction

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Kattegat area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Offshore circalittoral mud	5.33	33.03	1.3	7.1	14.7	23.1	32.7	42.9	54.4	67.1	81.3
Infralittoral sand	4.62	0.21	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.6	5.3
Circalittoral mud	3.21	6.67	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.8	4.9	14.4	27.1	46.1	71.8
Circalittoral sand	2.94	1.66	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.6	1.9	5.7	16.2	44.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	1.68	0.68	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.6	2.7	9.6	32.2
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.04	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.4	6.6	26.4
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.61	0.26	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	1.7	4.6	9.2	32.6
Infralittoral mud	0.52	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	11.2	36.4
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	1.39	0.8	3.0	8.3	14.9	25.3	40.7	52.3	71.0	86.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.4	0.05	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.6	6.9
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.35	0.97	0.2	0.5	3.0	12.9	23.2	28.3	40.3	59.3	81.4
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.06	0.28	0.6	2.2	8.7	18.2	28.4	41.3	51.8	67.5	90.4
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	7.1	10.7	23.7	54.3
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.8	1.1	2.9	11.1	38.9	65.7
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.01	0.02	0.1	2.2	8.0	8.0	15.5	28.9	64.0	100.0	100.0
Unknown	0	0	10.2	10.2	10.2	10.2	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Kattegat area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	21.26	0.3	1.4	2.9	4.5	6.7	9.1	12.1	15.4	19.8
Offshore circalittoral mud	5.33	0.3	1.3	2.7	4.3	6.0	7.9	10.0	12.1	14.6
Infralittoral sand	4.62	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral mud	3.21	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.3	0.7	1.3	2.1	3.2
Circalittoral sand	2.94	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.5
Circalittoral mixed sediment	1.68	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.61	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.52	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.35	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.5
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.06	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Kattegat area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	21.26	<0.1	0.3	0.6	0.9	1.6	2.1	2.6	3.3	4.3
Offshore circalittoral mud	5.33	<0.1	0.2	0.5	0.8	1.0	1.3	1.6	2.0	2.4
Infralittoral sand	4.62	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral mud	3.21	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.5	0.6	0.8	0.9	1.1
Circalittoral sand	2.94	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2
Circalittoral mixed sediment	1.68	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mixed sediment	1.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.61	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.52	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	0.3
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.35	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.06	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

Figure 8: Habitat 1

Figure 8. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Kattegat area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 9: Habitat 2

Figure 9. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Kattegat area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 10: Habitat 3

Figure 10. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Kattegat area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 11: Habitat 4

Figure 11. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Kattegat area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Norwegian Trench

Summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Norwegian Trench area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	5.86	7.98	1.05
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	0.90	1.00	0.68
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.79	0.97	0.40
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.55	0.73	0.30
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.10	0.00	0.32
Average PD impact (I-6a)	NA	NA	NA
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	NA	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	NA	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	NA	NA	NA

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Norwegian Trench area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Norwegian Trench area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.3.a.20	Skagerrak	8589114	8.17	[6 - 11]
27.4.a	Northern North Sea	6518051	0.00	[0 - 0]

Fishing intensity

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Norwegian Trench area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity (I-1)	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Offshore circalittoral mud	4.58	50.5	4.67	20.62	34.81	7.61	96	71.2	0.9
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	27.3	2.48	12.60	15.51	6.27	83	62.5	7.9
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.86	9.4	0.16	1.52	2.05	2.40	70	58.2	2.7
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.29	3.3	0.07	0.64	0.76	2.58	63	47.2	3.4
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.23	2.6	0.02	0.15	0.16	0.71	23	20.1	26.0
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.21	2.3	0.40	0.95	2.78	13.24	95	75.6	0.1
Circalittoral mud	0.13	1.4	0.02	0.06	0.14	1.10	14	7.3	72.8
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.11	1.2	0.01	0.06	0.06	0.51	18	13.7	35.1
Infralittoral mud	0.06	0.7	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.11	5	4.4	88.3
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.04	0.4	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.21	10	31.0	39.6
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	0.2	0.00	0.02	0.02	1.09	44	32.8	1.9
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	0.2	0.00	0.02	0.02	1.04	28	22.9	3.2
Circalittoral sand	0.02	0.2	0.01	0.03	0.07	4.27	56	41.7	3.7
Infralittoral sand	0.01	0.1	0.01	0.03	0.08	7.44	68	46.8	2.4
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.04	2	6.9	86.5
Unknown	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.47	10	6.2	67.2
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.01	0.01	2.95	55	40.2	11.3
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	4.04	98	NA	0.0

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Norwegian Trench area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Norwegian Trench area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Norwegian Trench area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Norwegian Trench area.

	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF
Area swept (1000 km2)	46.11	6.52	0.03	3.33
Landings (1000 tonnes)	5.95	1.49	0.03	0.32
Value (Million euro)	32.21	3.52	0.02	0.85
Landings / Area swept	0.13	0.23	0.99	0.10
Value / Area swept	0.70	0.54	0.76	0.25

Impact

This region does not allow for impact assessments, due to lacking sensitivity estimates

Scenarios

Footprint reduction

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Norwegian Trench area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Offshore circalittoral mud	4.58	34.81	1.7	5.7	11.1	18.4	27.1	36.5	47.9	61.6	78.1
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	15.51	<0.1	1.1	5.4	12.4	21.7	32.1	44.0	57.2	75.2
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.86	2.05	0.2	1.8	3.5	9.4	15.9	27.2	43.3	60.9	78.4
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.29	0.76	<0.1	0.4	1.1	4.2	8.3	19.1	34.5	49.7	67.9
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.23	0.16	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.4	1.7	3.1	5.4	11.9	42.4
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.21	2.78	1.4	8.6	16.4	26.9	39.4	45.7	60.3	78.4	88.0
Circalittoral mud	0.13	0.14	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.9	7.3
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.11	0.06	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.4	1.2	3.8	5.1	29.3
Infralittoral mud	0.06	0.01	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.8
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.04	0.01	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	1.9	3.4	12.1	21.4	52.3
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	0.02	<0.1	0.3	4.0	5.5	5.5	7.3	29.5	44.6	64.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	0.02	<0.1	0.3	0.4	0.4	1.8	3.5	7.1	17.6	52.9
Circalittoral sand	0.02	0.07	<0.1	<0.1	0.3	0.7	3.9	36.3	36.3	62.6	100.0
Infralittoral sand	0.01	0.08	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	6.1	14.2	30.2	30.2	59.4	100.0
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	5.9
Unknown	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.7	5.0
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	0.01	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	17.8	52.5	52.5	52.5	100.0
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	0	14.3	42.1	42.1	60.7	80.2	80.2	80.2	80.2	100.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Norwegian Trench area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	9.06	0.5	1.6	3.6	6.6	10.3	14.3	18.8	23.8	29.8
Offshore circalittoral mud	4.58	0.5	1.4	2.5	4.4	6.5	8.7	11.0	13.6	16.7
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	<0.1	0.1	0.8	1.7	3.0	4.6	6.3	8.1	10.4
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.86	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.6	0.9	1.2
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.29	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.23	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.21	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.8	0.9
Circalittoral mud	0.13	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.11	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.06	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral sand	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral sand	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1
Unknown	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Norwegian Trench area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	9.06	<0.1	0.3	0.6	1.2	1.9	2.6	3.5	4.6	6.0
Offshore circalittoral mud	4.58	<0.1	0.2	0.4	0.8	1.1	1.5	2.1	2.7	3.5
Upper bathyal sediment	2.48	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.8	1.1	1.5	1.9
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.86	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.29	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.23	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	0.21	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4
Circalittoral mud	0.13	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.11	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.06	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral sand	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral sand	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1
Unknown	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Upper bathyal rock and biogenic reef	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

This region does not allow for the gear modification scenario, due to lacking sensitivity estimates

Central North Sea

Summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Central North Sea area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	4.24	NA	NA
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	1.00	NA	NA
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.82	NA	NA
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.42	NA	NA
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.00	NA	NA
Average PD impact (I-6a)	0.27	NA	NA
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	0.36	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	0.64	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	0.53	NA	NA

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Central North Sea area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Central North Sea area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.3.a.20	Skagerrak	8589114	8.17	[6 - 11]
27.4.a	Northern North Sea	6518051	0.00	[0 - 0]
27.4.b	Central North Sea	24194203	1.00	[1 - 1]

Fishing intensity

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Central North Sea area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Offshore circalittoral mud	8.34	43.9	4.54	12.22	26.31	3.16	78	49.4	0.0
Offshore circalittoral sand	6.54	34.4	18.43	22.74	41.56	6.36	86	48.7	0.3
Circalittoral sand	1.68	8.9	10.02	5.17	6.66	3.96	95	64.6	0.0
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	1.16	6.1	1.32	2.83	3.36	2.90	77	57.1	0.0
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.59	3.1	1.26	1.11	1.03	1.73	67	66.2	0.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.33	1.7	0.64	0.54	0.47	1.43	80	78.5	0.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.30	1.6	0.34	0.64	0.87	2.87	60	44.3	0.0
Infralittoral sand	0.03	0.2	0.98	0.33	0.24	7.49	100	NA	0.0
Circalittoral mud	0.02	0.1	0.02	0.03	0.07	3.54	85	NA	0.0
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	14.68	100	NA	0.0

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Central North Sea area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Central North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Central North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Central North Sea area.

	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_DMF
Area swept (1000 km2)	27.01	26.58	0.07	16.46	5.48	4.98
Landings (1000 tonnes)	3.33	27.37	0.62	1.59	0.59	4.04
Value (Million euro)	13.75	15.84	0.19	4.09	1.55	10.18
Landings / Area swept	0.12	1.03	9.46	0.10	0.11	0.81
Value / Area swept	0.51	0.60	2.91	0.25	0.28	2.04

Impact

Figure 5

Figure 5. The spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact in the Central North Sea area, as assessed with the PD indicator (I-6a) and PD-sens indicator (I-6b), shown as annual means for 2017-2022. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Temporal variation in values of the PD indicator (I-6a), PD-sens indicator (I-6b), proportion of area with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a) and proportion of area with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b), shown for the overall area and for the four most extensive broad habitat types separately in the Central North Sea area. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Table 5

Table 5. Métier-specific landings weight and value per unit PD or PD-sens impact in the Central North Sea area.

	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_DMF
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD impact	0.019	0.344	7.520	0.070	0.048	0.054
Value (million euro)/PD impact	0.078	0.199	2.313	0.179	0.126	0.136
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD-sens impact	0.015	0.205	4.981	0.041	0.028	0.033
Value (million euro)/PD-sens impact	0.061	0.119	1.532	0.104	0.073	0.084

Figure 7

Figure 7. Métier-related impacts, as measured with the PD indicator (top) and PD-sens indicator (bottom), on the four most extensive broad habitat types in the Central North Sea area.

Scenarios

Footprint reduction

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Central North Sea area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Offshore circalittoral mud	8.34	26.31	1.3	3.0	4.9	7.3	9.9	12.7	16.1	21.1	42.6
Offshore circalittoral sand	6.54	41.56	0.5	1.6	2.9	5.1	9.4	15.1	23.5	38.5	60.9
Circalittoral sand	1.68	6.66	2.5	4.8	8.2	12.1	15.8	22.2	38.1	50.2	68.8
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	1.16	3.36	2.1	3.9	6.8	9.4	12.5	16.6	21.9	33.6	56.9
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.59	1.03	3.2	6.0	9.6	12.0	14.9	21.7	30.0	45.2	69.4
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.33	0.47	4.3	10.2	17.6	24.7	30.8	41.2	49.7	62.0	72.4
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.3	0.87	1.9	3.8	5.0	6.8	9.3	11.5	13.6	17.1	48.1
Infralittoral sand	0.03	0.24	15.0	23.5	33.0	51.1	51.1	72.4	72.4	100.0	100.0
Circalittoral mud	0.02	0.07	7.0	10.6	17.3	22.2	22.2	35.7	35.7	35.7	35.7
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Central North Sea area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	18.99	0.8	1.9	3.2	4.9	7.4	10.9	15.4	21.4	30.0
Offshore circalittoral mud	8.34	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.9	1.2	1.5	1.9	2.6	5.1
Offshore circalittoral sand	6.54	0.2	0.7	1.3	2.2	3.8	6.1	9.0	12.9	16.9
Circalittoral sand	1.68	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.6	0.8	1.1	1.9	2.6	3.6
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	1.16	<0.1	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.8	1.0	1.3	1.7	2.2
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.59	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.8
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.33	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.3	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.5
Infralittoral sand	0.03	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3
Circalittoral mud	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Central North Sea area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	18.99	0.7	1.4	2.3	3.9	6.2	11.1	17.2	24.7	29.4
Offshore circalittoral mud	8.34	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.8	1.0	1.4	2.0	2.8
Offshore circalittoral sand	6.54	0.1	0.4	0.8	1.6	3.1	6.8	10.7	15.1	16.5
Circalittoral sand	1.68	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.6	1.0	1.5	3.1	4.9	6.7
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	1.16	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.9	1.1
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	0.59	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.6
Circalittoral coarse sediment	0.33	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.3	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2
Infralittoral sand	0.03	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.7	0.7	1.0	1.0
Circalittoral mud	0.02	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

Figure 8: Habitat 1

Figure 8. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Central North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 9: Habitat 2

Figure 9. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Central North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 10: Habitat 3

Figure 10. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Central North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 11: Habitat 4

Figure 11. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Central North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Southern North Sea

Summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Southern North Sea area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	1.77	NA	NA
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	0.99	NA	NA
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.74	NA	NA
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.56	NA	NA
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.01	NA	NA
Average PD impact (I-6a)	0.14	NA	NA
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	0.23	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	0.74	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	0.59	NA	NA

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Southern North Sea area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Southern North Sea area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.3.a.20	Skagerrak	8589114	8.17	[6 - 11]
27.4.b	Central North Sea	24194203	1.00	[1 - 1]
27.4.c	Southern North Sea	19239402	0.00	[0 - 0]
27.7.e	Eastern English Channel	8267271	32.83	[31 - 35]

Fishing intensity

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Southern North Sea area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Circalittoral sand	51.22	36.8	67.15	114.97	87.33	1.70	70	55.9	1.8
Offshore circalittoral sand	42.53	30.5	32.12	62.05	61.11	1.44	77	70.9	0.2
Offshore circalittoral mud	24.24	17.4	23.89	41.65	56.17	2.32	89	69.1	0.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	6.92	5.0	9.97	10.37	8.66	1.25	58	56.7	1.3
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	3.52	2.5	4.94	11.44	15.65	4.45	83	55.3	0.5
Infralittoral sand	3.37	2.4	11.64	23.34	8.26	2.45	71	56.2	7.8
Circalittoral mud	2.88	2.1	10.04	10.30	4.95	1.72	66	64.0	2.3
Circalittoral mixed sediment	2.48	1.8	3.72	3.46	2.66	1.07	52	52.8	1.6
Unknown	0.85	0.6	1.45	3.63	3.28	3.85	91	66.2	0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.60	0.4	6.23	3.08	0.21	0.36	18	33.0	31.4
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	0.3	0.45	0.83	0.64	1.53	70	69.1	0.8
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.11	0.1	0.69	0.71	0.28	2.54	78	61.3	0.2
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.06	0.0	0.55	0.21	0.02	0.40	14	16.4	14.7
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.18	8	10.3	31.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.28	16	12.8	34.4
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.04	4	NA	1.2

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Southern North Sea area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Southern North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Southern North Sea area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Southern North Sea area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_CRU	TBB_DMF
Area swept (1000 km2)	0.44	40.22	53.77	1.88	1.59	16.06	31.77	48.16	59.37
Landings (1000 tonnes)	26.29	5.07	61.71	0.96	26.25	1.60	2.45	22.26	26.26
Value (Million euro)	18.84	20.60	29.05	3.36	6.43	4.09	5.10	91.15	107.42
Landings / Area swept	59.97	0.13	1.15	0.51	16.53	0.10	0.08	0.46	0.44
Value / Area swept	42.97	0.51	0.54	1.78	4.05	0.25	0.16	1.89	1.81

Impact

Figure 5

Figure 5. The spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact in the Southern North Sea area, as assessed with the PD indicator (I-6a) and PD-sens indicator (I-6b), shown as annual means for 2017-2022. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Temporal variation in values of the PD indicator (I-6a), PD-sens indicator (I-6b), proportion of area with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a) and proportion of area with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b), shown for the overall area and for the four most extensive broad habitat types separately in the Southern North Sea area. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Table 5

Table 5. Métier-specific landings weight and value per unit PD or PD-sens impact in the Southern North Sea area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_CRU	TBB_DMF
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD impact	0.570	0.017	0.456	0.118	9.692	0.056	0.072	0.107	0.046
Value (million euro)/PD impact	0.408	0.070	0.215	0.414	2.373	0.144	0.150	0.438	0.189
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD-sens impact	0.546	0.011	0.291	0.078	7.953	0.039	0.046	0.073	0.029
Value (million euro)/PD-sens impact	0.392	0.047	0.137	0.273	1.947	0.101	0.096	0.299	0.119

Figure 7

Figure 7. Métier-related impacts, as measured with the PD indicator (top) and PD-sens indicator (bottom), on the four most extensive broad habitat types in the Southern North Sea area.

Scenarios

Footprint reduction

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Southern North Sea area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Circalittoral sand	51.22	87.33	0.2	1.4	4.0	8.0	13.6	21.0	30.3	42.0	59.5
Offshore circalittoral sand	42.53	61.11	2.1	6.1	10.5	15.7	21.9	29.7	39.3	51.3	65.9
Offshore circalittoral mud	24.24	56.17	2.5	5.7	9.6	14.9	21.3	28.9	38.6	51.2	69.3
Circalittoral coarse sediment	6.92	8.66	0.3	1.7	4.2	7.9	14.4	21.4	31.7	45.5	61.5
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	3.52	15.65	0.7	2.2	4.8	8.1	12.2	17.4	24.4	34.7	49.5
Infralittoral sand	3.37	8.26	0.4	2.5	6.8	12.5	20.7	32.7	43.9	57.8	73.8
Circalittoral mud	2.88	4.95	2.1	5.1	9.8	13.7	19.3	25.8	34.5	44.3	66.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	2.48	2.66	0.2	1.2	3.4	7.1	13.2	19.0	26.6	42.2	64.2
Unknown	0.85	3.28	2.7	5.1	9.1	12.4	16.7	28.1	44.6	63.8	83.5
Infralittoral mud	0.6	0.21	0.0	0.0	0.2	2.9	10.0	13.1	22.7	38.8	70.3
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	0.64	1.6	4.2	9.7	12.8	19.0	32.0	48.3	56.2	65.7
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.11	0.28	1.0	5.9	7.6	12.3	24.4	41.2	55.0	66.9	75.6
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.06	0.02	0.0	0.3	0.5	1.7	1.7	6.8	6.8	24.5	67.5
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.01	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.3	1.4	3.5	4.2	23.6
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.01	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.4	0.5	1.2	1.6	58.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Southern North Sea area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	139.28	5.4	15.9	28.4	43.8	60.7	82.4	108.2	141.1	188.6
Circalittoral sand	51.22	0.5	3.0	6.8	11.1	16.9	24.6	33.3	45.2	65.5
Offshore circalittoral sand	42.53	1.9	4.8	7.7	10.6	14.2	19.0	25.5	34.8	46.7
Offshore circalittoral mud	24.24	1.7	3.9	6.3	9.0	12.5	16.2	20.5	25.6	31.9
Circalittoral coarse sediment	6.92	<0.1	0.4	0.6	1.4	2.2	2.9	4.1	5.4	6.8
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	3.52	0.1	0.5	0.9	1.5	2.2	3.0	4.0	5.3	7.0
Infralittoral sand	3.37	0.5	2.3	3.5	6.7	8.4	10.7	12.8	14.9	17.7
Circalittoral mud	2.88	0.4	0.7	1.1	1.5	1.9	2.4	3.1	3.8	5.5
Circalittoral mixed sediment	2.48	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.7	1.1	1.6	2.2
Unknown	0.85	0.1	0.2	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.7	2.4	2.7	3.3
Infralittoral mud	0.6	0.0	0.0	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.6	0.8
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.11	<0.1	0.1	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.6
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.06	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Southern North Sea area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	139.28	4.7	12.4	21.0	30.3	39.5	50.9	63.9	79.6	103.2
Circalittoral sand	51.22	0.3	1.6	4.0	5.8	8.6	12.8	17.7	24.8	37.4
Offshore circalittoral sand	42.53	1.7	4.0	6.1	8.1	10.5	13.5	16.4	19.7	23.3
Offshore circalittoral mud	24.24	2.0	4.5	6.8	9.0	11.0	12.8	15.1	17.4	19.9
Circalittoral coarse sediment	6.92	<0.1	0.2	0.4	1.0	1.4	1.8	2.6	3.4	5.0
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	3.52	<0.1	0.3	0.5	0.8	1.2	1.6	2.2	2.9	3.6
Infralittoral sand	3.37	0.2	0.9	1.4	3.2	3.8	4.5	5.2	5.9	6.8
Circalittoral mud	2.88	0.2	0.5	0.8	1.2	1.5	1.7	2.0	2.3	3.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	2.48	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.8	1.2	1.6
Unknown	0.85	<0.1	0.1	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.9	1.1	1.2	1.3
Infralittoral mud	0.6	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.42	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.11	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.06	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.04	0.0	0.0	0.0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

Figure 8: Habitat 1

Figure 8. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Southern North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 9: Habitat 2

Figure 9. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Southern North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 10: Habitat 3

Figure 10. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Southern North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 11: Habitat 4

Figure 11. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Southern North Sea area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Channel

Summary

Table 1

Table 1. Values of pressure and impact indicators for 2017-2022 for three depth strata in the Channel area. Values of I-1, I-2, I-3, I-4, I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b are annual means and I-5 is evaluated over the six years. Descriptions of the pressure and impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Indicators	0 to 200 m	200 to 400 m	400 m to 800 m
Average fishing intensity (I-1)	6.06	NA	NA
Proportion of fished c-squares (I-2)	1.00	NA	NA
Proportion of area fished (I-3)	0.78	NA	NA
Smallest prop. of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity (I-4)	0.46	NA	NA
Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares (I-5)	0.00	NA	NA
Average PD impact (I-6a)	0.24	NA	NA
Average PD-sens impact (I-6b)	0.40	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a)	0.54	NA	NA
Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b)	0.44	NA	NA

Figure 1

Figure 1. Geographic distribution of fishing intensity (Swept Area Ratio), seabed sensitivity (community longevity), total landings value, and total landings weight from mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) in the Channel area. The maps of swept area ratio, landings value, and landings weight show annual means.

Table 2

Table 2. Contribution of small-scale fisheries (vessels <12 m overall length) to total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) in the Channel area. The table shows the total fishing effort (kW * fishing days) by FAO region over the period 2017-2021, and the mean contribution (%), both mean and observed range of small-scale MBCG fisheries. This analysis is based on EU STECF Fisheries Dependent Information (FDI) effort data, which includes consistent information of SSF effort (while ICES VMS data does not). Please see the Main Advice for more information.

FAO region code	FAO region name	Total fishing effort (kW * Fishing days	Mean contribution SSF (%)	Observed range SSF contribution (%) [min - max]
27.4.c	Southern North Sea	19239402	0.00	[0 - 0]
27.7.d	Western English Channel	12365350	17.33	[16 - 18]
27.7.e	Eastern English Channel	8267271	32.83	[31 - 35]

Fishing intensity

Table 3

Table 3. Extent (in km² and %) of broad habitat types in the Channel area, and mean annual estimates of MBCG fishing intensity, landings weight, and landings value. In addition, estimates of the average annual proportion of the fished extent, the smallest proportion of the habitat extent affected by 90% of the fishing effort, and the proportion of unfished extent are provided.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Relative habitat abundance (%)	Landings (x1000 tonnes)	Value (x106 euro)	Swept area (x1000 km2)	Average fishing intensity	Average annual extent fished (%)	Smallest proportion of extent with 90% of fishing effort	Percentage extent unfished (%)
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	15.51	61.1	31.91	86.86	87.75	5.66	78	51.1	0.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	3.68	14.5	8.97	24.11	31.35	8.51	76	39.3	0.0
Circalittoral sand	2.26	8.9	5.21	14.41	16.91	7.47	91	57.5	0.0
Offshore circalittoral sand	1.30	5.1	5.20	14.89	11.89	9.15	98	80.7	0.0
Infralittoral sand	0.92	3.6	2.07	5.23	3.11	3.39	76	60.9	0.1
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.71	2.8	3.18	6.95	1.81	2.54	80	73.0	0.0
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.22	0.9	0.31	0.88	0.53	2.43	45	32.9	0.0
Infralittoral mud	0.19	0.7	0.43	1.20	0.66	3.54	86	65.2	0.0
Circalittoral mud	0.16	0.6	0.49	1.60	2.18	13.22	98	80.3	0.0
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.16	0.6	0.27	0.73	0.26	1.65	48	41.1	0.0
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.13	0.5	0.16	0.45	0.15	1.19	49	50.4	0.0
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.10	0.4	0.02	0.05	0.08	0.77	13	4.9	0.0
Offshore circalittoral mud	0.05	0.2	0.23	0.69	0.74	15.23	99	78.8	0.0
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.01	0.0	0.05	0.13	0.01	1.67	93	68.5	0.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.66	53	86.4	0.0
Unknown	0.00	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00	1.56	75	59.2	0.0

Figure 2

Figure 2. Temporal variation of the pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 in the Channel area. Descriptions of the pressure indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Core fishing grounds

Figure 3

Figure 3. Spatial stability of core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Channel area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included. The numbers between brackets show the proportion of fished extent compared to the overall assessed area extent.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the stability of the core MBCG fishing grounds, presented as the number of years a csquare is identified as a core fishing ground (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) per métier for the Channel area. Only métiers that were active within >50 unique c-squares during the period 2017-2022 are included.

Fishing by métier

Table 4

Table 4. Landings weight and value by métier and their relationship with swept area in the Channel area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_DMF	TBB_MOL
Area swept (1000 km2)	9.20	0.61	51.78	21.30	3.67	22.49	46.03	2.94	0.03
Landings (1000 tonnes)	34.30	0.09	7.48	8.14	1.24	1.61	3.09	1.94	0.59
Value (Million euro)	92.42	0.71	20.14	21.35	2.44	4.92	7.74	7.72	0.74
Landings / Area swept	3.73	0.15	0.14	0.38	0.34	0.07	0.07	0.66	20.53
Value / Area swept	10.05	1.17	0.39	1.00	0.67	0.22	0.17	2.62	25.67

Impact

Figure 5

Figure 5. The spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact in the Channel area, as assessed with the PD indicator (I-6a) and PD-sens indicator (I-6b), shown as annual means for 2017-2022. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Temporal variation in values of the PD indicator (I-6a), PD-sens indicator (I-6b), proportion of area with PD impact < 0.2 (I-7a) and proportion of area with PD-sens impact < 0.2 (I-7b), shown for the overall area and for the four most extensive broad habitat types separately in the Channel area. Descriptions of the impact indicators are provided in the ‘Essential Information’ Table E1 in this document.

Table 5

Table 5. Métier-specific landings weight and value per unit PD or PD-sens impact in the Channel area.

	DRB_MOL	OT_CRU	OT_DMF	OT_MI	OT_SPF	SDN_DMF	SSC_DMF	TBB_DMF	TBB_MOL
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD impact	0.266	0.008	0.072	0.071	0.071	0.099	0.064	0.055	0.740
Value (million euro)/PD impact	0.716	0.058	0.194	0.187	0.140	0.302	0.160	0.217	0.926
Landings (1000 tonnes)/PD-sens impact	0.162	0.006	0.047	0.044	0.067	0.063	0.035	0.035	0.702
Value (million euro)/PD-sens impact	0.436	0.050	0.126	0.116	0.133	0.192	0.089	0.138	0.878

Figure 7

Figure 7. Métier-related impacts, as measured with the PD indicator (top) and PD-sens indicator (bottom), on the four most extensive broad habitat types in the Channel area.

Scenarios

Footprint reduction

Table 6: Effort

Table 6. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Channel area, on swept area (presented as % of total swept area within that habitat type). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	Total area swept (x1000 km2	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	15.51	87.75	0.1	0.5	1.9	5.3	10.8	18.0	28.1	42.0	63.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	3.68	31.35	<0.1	0.5	1.4	3.5	6.1	9.9	22.0	39.9	63.3
Circalittoral sand	2.26	16.91	1.4	3.6	5.8	9.3	14.4	21.6	29.9	47.6	69.5
Offshore circalittoral sand	1.3	11.89	2.9	11.5	19.0	26.7	33.9	41.8	50.3	59.5	72.4
Infralittoral sand	0.92	3.11	0.4	0.9	5.6	13.1	20.0	32.9	46.2	60.8	73.2
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.71	1.81	0.7	6.0	13.3	19.2	23.3	30.7	44.3	57.3	75.4
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.22	0.53	0.7	1.3	1.7	3.1	4.0	7.1	10.5	17.2	26.9
Infralittoral mud	0.19	0.66	2.0	4.3	8.1	11.9	18.9	32.3	45.8	68.1	83.4
Circalittoral mud	0.16	2.18	3.6	12.0	17.8	32.8	38.4	54.2	64.6	75.6	87.3
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.16	0.26	<0.1	0.1	0.4	1.6	2.8	12.3	23.2	28.2	51.6
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.13	0.15	0.1	1.2	4.4	7.0	9.6	19.9	31.6	49.6	68.4
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.1	0.08	0.9	1.2	2.4	3.9	4.8	6.7	7.7	8.9	10.6
Offshore circalittoral mud	0.05	0.74	3.5	11.6	28.2	45.4	45.4	58.4	75.3	100.0	100.0
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.01	0.01	3.6	9.6	18.8	43.1	69.4	69.4	100.0	100.0	100.0
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0	0	11.6	38.5	38.5	38.5	38.5	38.5	38.5	100.0	100.0
Unknown	0	0	8.4	8.4	8.4	15.2	21.9	66.0	66.0	100.0	100.0

Table 7: Landings value

Table 7. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Channel area, on landings value (in 10⁶ euro). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	25.4	1.7	5.0	9.4	16.5	26.3	39.9	63.2	88.0	113.1
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	15.51	<0.1	0.3	1.2	4.4	9.7	17.1	30.4	45.1	60.0
Circalittoral coarse sediment	3.68	<0.1	0.3	0.9	1.6	2.7	4.4	9.7	13.2	17.4
Circalittoral sand	2.26	0.5	0.9	1.2	1.8	2.6	3.8	5.2	7.9	10.5
Offshore circalittoral sand	1.3	0.7	2.4	3.9	5.0	6.2	7.4	8.3	10.1	11.8
Infralittoral sand	0.92	<0.1	0.1	0.4	0.9	1.3	1.9	2.5	3.1	3.5
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.71	<0.1	0.4	0.8	1.4	2.1	2.9	4.2	5.1	5.9
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.22	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2
Infralittoral mud	0.19	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.8	1.0	1.0
Circalittoral mud	0.16	<0.1	0.3	0.4	0.6	0.7	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.3
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.16	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.5
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.13	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral mud	0.05	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.7
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Table 8: Landings weight

Table 8. The effects of stepwise exclusion of all MBCG fisheries from a specified proportion of a MSFD broad habitat type within the Channel area, on landings weight (in 10⁶ kg). The stepwise exclusion is conducted in 10% increments, and within each successive increment from 10% to 90% the c-squares with the lowest recorded rank MBCG swept area are excluded. Note that the top row shows the total estimate for all habitats combined.

MSFD broad habitat type	Extent of habitat (x1000 km2)	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.4	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.9
Total	25.4	0.6	1.8	3.5	6.2	10.0	15.1	23.7	33.2	42.4
Offshore circalittoral coarse sediment	15.51	<0.1	<0.1	0.4	1.7	3.7	6.6	11.5	16.9	22.1
Circalittoral coarse sediment	3.68	<0.1	0.1	0.4	0.6	1.0	1.6	3.5	5.0	6.7
Circalittoral sand	2.26	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.7	1.0	1.4	1.9	3.0	3.9
Offshore circalittoral sand	1.3	0.2	0.8	1.4	1.8	2.2	2.7	3.0	3.6	4.1
Infralittoral sand	0.92	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.9	1.2	1.5
Infralittoral coarse sediment	0.71	<0.1	0.2	0.4	0.6	1.0	1.3	1.9	2.3	2.7
Offshore circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.22	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Infralittoral mud	0.19	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4
Circalittoral mud	0.16	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.4
Infralittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.16	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2
Circalittoral rock and biogenic reef	0.13	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral mixed sediment	0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Offshore circalittoral mud	0.05	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2
Infralittoral mixed sediment	0.01	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Circalittoral mixed sediment	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1
Unknown	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1

Gear modifications

Figure 8: Habitat 1

Figure 8. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Channel area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 9: Habitat 2

Figure 9. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Channel area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 10: Habitat 3

Figure 10. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Channel area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Figure 11: Habitat 4

Figure 11. Effects of gear modifications (5%, 10%, and 20% lower depletion) on the quality-quantity threshold for the most abundant MSFD habitat type in the Channel area. Habitat quality is defined as 1 - impact, with impact calculated as PD (I-6a) or PD-sens (I-7a). The dotted line represent the extent threshold of 75%.

Essential information

Content of this advice product

This document presents information on the distribution, intensity, impact, and economic value of mobile bottom-contacting gear (MBCG) fisheries within the Greater North Sea area, and estimated consequences and costs (landings weight and value) of reducing their relative extent. The information is from an assessment for the Greater North Sea area for the period 2017-2022. The six-year period was selected to include the latest available Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) and logbook data, rather than to match a specific Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) assessment period (EU, 2008).

The assessment describes fishing intensity and impact with five pressure indicators and four benthic impact indicators (Table E1).

Table E1. Pressure and impact indicators that are applied by (sub-)regional and subdivision area, including the spatial scale and period over which the indicators are calculated.

Indicator code	Indicator name	Indicator type	Description	Spatial scale	Period
I-1	Average fishing intensity	Pressure	Average number of times a defined area is swept by mobile bottom-contacting gears (MBCG). Estimated as the sum of swept area for all vessels using MBCG divided by the total area of the defined area (e.g. within a depth range or broad habitat type).	Absolute extent (m2)	Year
I-2	Proportion of fished c-squares	Pressure	The number of c-squares fished at least once by MBCG (irrespective of the swept area within the c-square), divided by the total number of c-squares within a defined area.	C-square	Year
I-3	Proportion of area fished	Pressure	The sum of swept area across all c-squares in a defined area, where swept area in a specific c-square cannot be greater than the area of that c-square, divided by the summed area of all c-squares.	Absolute extent (m2)	Year
I-4	Smallest proportion of c-squares with 90% of total fishing intensity	Pressure	The smallest proportion of the c-squares where 90% of the total swept area occurs.	C-square	Year
I-5	Proportion of persistently unfished c-squares	Pressure	The inverse of I-2, evaluated over six years.	C-square	Assessment period
I-6a	Average PD impact	Impact	The annual mean PD impact (Population Dynamics method, impact indicator) evaluated for a defined area.	C-square	Year
I-6b	Average PD-sens impact	Impact	The annual mean PD-sens impact (Population Dynamics method, impact indicator for sensitive species) evaluated for a defined area.	C-square	Year
I-7a	Proportion of c-squares with PD impact < 0.2	Impact	The proportion of c-squares within the defined area, where PD <0.2.	C-square	Year
I-7b	Proportion of c-squares with PD-sens impact < 0.2	Impact	The proportion of c-squares within the defined area, where PD-sens <0.2.	C-square	Year

For each defined assessment area and subdivision, tabs lead to ‘summary’ information and information on ‘fishing intensity’, ‘core fishing grounds’, ‘fishing by métier’, ‘impact’ and ‘scenarios’ (Table E2).

Table E2. Information provided in the tabs for each assessment area.

Tab	Description
Summary	Values of pressure indicators I-1 to I-5 and impact indicators I-6a, I-6b, I-7a and I-7b by depth strata (Table 1).
	Maps of swept area  ratio, median longevity of benthic fauna, and landings value and weight (Figure 1).
	Estimates of the contribution of small-scale fisheries (MBCG vessels <12m overall length) to total fishing effort in kW*fishing days (Table 2).
Fishing intensity	The extent of broad habitat types, and various estimates of MBCG fishing activity for those habitat types; fisheries landings, value, and intensity (Table 3).
	Temporal variation of pressure indicators I-1, I-3 and I-4 (Figure 2).
Core fishing grounds	Spatial stability of core fishing grounds (smallest area responsible for 90% of the landings value) over time (Figure 3) and their spatial distribution (Figure 4).
Fishing by métier	Estimates of swept area, landings weight and landings value for the active métiers (Table 4).
Impact	Spatial distribution of MBCG fisheries impact indicator values (I-6a) and (I-6b) (Figure 5).
	Temporal variation of impact indicators I-6a, I-6b, I-7a, and I-7b (Figure 6).
	Landings weight and value per unit impact for the active métiers (Table 5).
	Métier-specific impacts for the four most extensive broad habitat types (Figure 7).
Scenarios	A ‘Footprint reduction’ scenario presenting effects of stepwise exclusion of MBCG fisheries in each broad habitat type, in terms of effort reduction (Table 6), landings value (Table 7), and landings weight (Table 8).
	A ‘Gear modifications’ scenario presenting the effects of gear modifications (assumed reduction in the depletion of benthic faunal biomass after a gear pass) on the quality-quantity threshold for the four most extensive habitat types (Figures 8-11).

Data limitations in the Greater North Sea region

The peak in fishing intensity in 2016 and the drop in 2017 are based on erroneous data inputs. There is some information of value of landings missing in the Northern North Sea/Norwegian Trench. Impact indicators (L1 and PD) could not be calculated for c-squares > 200m depth because of data unavailability.

Temporal patterns in fishing activity are available from 2009 for vessels over 15m and from 2012 for vessels over 12m. Temporal variation in fishing activity hence represents vessels over 15m (2009-2011) and vessels over 12m (2012-2018). The assessment maps and indicator values produced are based on an average for 2013-2018.

Figure E1. Map of the assessment area, showing the water depth class distributions (left), and boundaries of the relevant (MSFD) divisions and FAO rgeions (right).

How is fishing intensity evaluated?

Five pressure indicators were used to describe fishing intensity and distribution resulting from the use of MBCG (Table E1). These indicators are calculated, for any given area as defined in this document, from estimates of the swept area in each of the c-squares within a defined area of interest. The swept area is calculated as hours fished × average fishing speed × gear width. This requires that VMS location records are linked to logbook data to associate a location and speed with gear code and fishing activity (Data Collection Framework level 4 and 6 respectively). VMS locations are allocated to ‘fishing’ and ‘not fishing’ based on vessel speed and other filters (ICES, 2022). The gear width is estimated based on relationships between average gear widths and average vessel length or engine power (kW) (Eigaard et al. 2016; ICES, 2022). The Swept Area Ratio (SAR) is calculated as the sum of the swept area attributed to all MBCG fishing recorded in the c-square within a year, divided by the area of that c-square. Therefore, the SAR indicates the theoretical number of times a c-square is swept per year, assuming that the MBCG fishing is evenly distributed over the c-square. For example, a SAR of 2 means that the entire c-square is fished 2 times over the year, a SAR of 0.5 means that the entire c-square is fished once in two years.

How is benthic impact evaluated?

Four indicators were used to describe benthic impacts. These indicators are generated from the assessment methods PD and PD-sens. PD (population dynamics method) is used to estimate the loss of benthic biomass, relative to carrying capacity, from a defined area if the current MBCG fishing intensity continues indefinitely (Pitcher et al., 2017, ICES 2018, 2022, Hiddink et al., 2019). PD-sens (population dynamics method for sensitive fauna) is used to estimate the loss of biomass of sensitive benthic fauna (the 10% most long-lived biomass fraction), relative to carrying capacity, from a defined area if the current MBCG fishing intensity continues indefinitely (ICES, 2024). For this advice, PD and PD-sens are estimated at the c-square scale.

PD and PD-sens are estimated from SAR and parameters for depletion (proportional mortality) per pass of a MBCG and the intrinsic rate of increase of biomass of the benthic community (Pitcher et al. 2017). Estimates of depletion were métier-specific and taken from Rijnsdorp et al (2020). The intrinsic rate of increase is estimated from the predicted local distribution of maximum ages in an unimpacted benthic community (Rijnsdorp et al 2018). When PD-sens rather than PD is calculated, only the 10% most long-lived biomass fraction of this community is used to estimate the intrinsic rate of increase, to address the component of the benthic biomass most sensitive to MBCG. Further details are provided in [ref to the main advice text or WK reports].

How are landings values evaluated?

VMS location records are linked to logbook data to associate a location with gear code and fishing activity (Data Collection Framework level 4 and 6 respectively), and with landings weight and landings value records. VMS location records are classified as ‘fishing’ and ‘not fishing’ based on vessel speed and other filters (ICES, 2022). Landings weight and value are then allocated to the VMS location records classified as fishing, based on the time interval between location records or an equal split among location records by day, by ICES rectangle or by trip. Total landings weight or value by c-square, in a given time-interval, are calculated as the sum of the allocations to each location record in that c-square.

References

Eigaard O.R., Bastardie F., Breen M.l., Dinesen G.E., Lafargue P., Nielsen J.R., et al. 2016. Estimating seafloor pressure from trawls and dredges based on gear design and dimensions. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 73(1): 27-43 https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv099

EU. 2008. Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive) (Text with EEA relevance)

Hiddink, J. G., Jennings, S., Sciberras, M., Bolam, S. G., Cambiè, G., McConnaughey, R. A., Mazor, T., et al. 2019 Assessing bottom-trawling impacts based on the longevity of benthic invertebrates. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56: 1075–1083. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13278.

ICES. 2018. Interim Report of the Working Group on Fisheries Benthic Impact and Trade-offs (WGFBIT), 12–16 November 2018, ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark. ICES CM 2018/HAPISG:21. 74 pp.

ICES. 2022. Working Group on Fisheries Benthic Impact and Trade-offs (WGFBIT; outputs from 2021meeting). ICES Scientific Reports. 4:9. 133 pp. http://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.10042

Pitcher, C. R., Ellis, N., Jennings, S., Hiddink, J. G., Mazor, T., Kaiser, M. J., Kangas, M. I., et al. 2017. Estimating the sustainability of towed fishing-gear impacts on seabed habitats: a simple quantitative risk assessment method applicable to data-limited fisheries. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 8: 472–480. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12705.

Rijnsdorp, A. D., Bolam, S. G., Garcia, C., Hiddink, J. G., Hintzen, N. T., van Denderen, D. P., and Van Kooten, T. 2018. Estimating sensitivity of seabed habitats to disturbance by bottom trawling based on the longevity of benthic fauna. Ecological Applications, 28: 1302–1312. https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1731

Rijnsdorp AD, Hiddink JG, van Denderen PD, Hintzen NT, Eigaard OR, Valanko S, Bastardie F, Bolam SG, Boulcott P, Egekvist J, Garcia C. 2020. Different bottom trawl fisheries have a differential impact on the status of the North Sea seafloor habitats. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 77(5): 1772-86. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa050